Subject: Creativity

Posted by Sharon Villines on 10/11/2010
In Reply To:Creativity Posted by Andrew Beesley on 10/11/2010

Message:

Thoughts on this thread: Creativity is differently defined and understood. It's in the category of "I know it when I see it." That said, I leap in. After spending 25 years teaching performing and visual art students and some "other" students, I have some observations that I think are interesting — they were at least revealing to me.

1. Creativity requires a balance of structure and freedom. The skills have to be mastered in order to pursue the insights. The insights, however, might make it easier to learn the basic skills because there is a need to learn them. But the energy of the insight can also wither while waiting for the skills.

I don't know how a school system can balance that for everyone all at once. The example of the accomplished people who had the freedom of the country plus the parent who was a teacher provides that balance. When you look at the homes of child prodigies they usually have that balance — a parent who is an expert and the freedom to avoid time filling activities that are prescribed for kids.

2. Too many people who say they are teaching creativity, are really just running around doing silly things. There are no standards and no skills being taught. This is where there are "no judgements." "We are free." Open space provides the place for a person to think and explore their own ideas but they have to have the ideas to explore.

Of the musicians I worked with, those who taught during the day and played concerts in the evening were the most stable. Those who travelled and/or played gigs in bars, were the most at danger of losing their creative balance. The lifestyle does not support creativity. It's too chaotic — even with drugs and alcohol under control.

3. Our system of schooling is defined by its structure. First you have to want to work in a room with 20-30 people all day, day after day. Just the physical environment and the structure of time defines who will choose to be in it and what can happen there. When a bell rings, everyone moves to the next room. That the accomplished people had a parent who was a "former" teacher, is significant. They were people who wanted to teach but not in that system.

I'm not sure how many people desire to be creative. I used to teach a seminar in which adult students looked at their experience to understand what they had learned, at their aspirations to see what they needed to learn to achieve them, and reading broadly to expand their horizons. I had done it with arts students several times and it was an exhilarating experience. Then i opened it to others. Primarily business and criminal justice (police officers) students responded. it was horrible. They didn't want to examine anything. They were on a clear path. And they were not unhappy.

4. Creativity is not about the what; it's about the attitude. Testing can be a wonderfully freeing and fun exercise if everyone has the right idea about it. Make it a party and see what happens. A game. Yes, the idea of using a paper and pencil test as the be all end all is absurd but the tests aren't going anywhere—and the standards are so low, one wonders at schools who can't meet them.

The study reported in _Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality_ has pretty much proven that if you ignore the test and focus on achievement, the students ace the tests.

5. Another name for ADD and ADHD may be creativity. I took one of the ADD tests and was borderline. I'm a person who can spend 18-20 hours on a task I care about, and remember 10 years of history of a committee decisions and events in detail if I experienced them. Watching a computer screen flash letters and hit keys in response is a test of nothing worth testing except a job watching a computer screen and hitting keys in response. I'm sure that is a useful skill, and one that many classrooms want each student to have, but it shouldn't be used to determine that Jimmy is normal and Susie isn't. Or to medicate anyone who can't do it.

6. Classrooms have changed enormously in the last 20 years. I'm amazed at the level of work and thinking my granddaughters bring home from school, both from a charter and from a regular public school. But what the teachers are put through is dumbfounding. Their report cards tell you exactly nothing because they consist of about 40 items that the girls are rated on by numbers. The wording ranges from obscure to demeaning and the difference between a 4 and a 5.5 dubious.

But these are the measurement someone can put into a computer and come out with numbers at the end. We love numbers don't we? Numbers are the true reality. You have to go to the teacher's conferences to find out anything at all about the kid.

I guess in the end, I think it isn't so clear how one teaches creativity so much as allows the space and time for creativity to emerge. But will it?

Sharon

Follow Ups:

Creativity - Philip Skolmoski 10/11/2010 
Creativity - Janice Hansel 10/12/2010